VoIP services now under Comms Act regulations

In a move that confirms the VoIP industry's position as a recognised communications provider, its services now fall under the normal requirements of the Communications Act.

"Essentially, the aim is to inform customers when the service they are purchasing differs from what they would expect from a traditional telephony service," said Steve Bieniek the deputy chair of the FCS VoIP Group.

"[Companies] providing VoIP services will not previously have had to provide codes of practice for their residential and small business customers, but they have to now."

Among the points of the new code are requirements that providers inform customers whether the VoIP system allows access to emergency services, whether services such as directory listings are available and warn that the service will fail if the broadband connection does.

The communications watchdog Ofcom has said that it will be writing to smaller providers to give them advice over the changes, while it will check that they have been implemented through a series of mystery shopper tests.